Federal Court Allows Muslim Instructor's Retaliation Claims to Proceed

A federal court allowed a former adjunct instructor's lawsuit alleging religious and national-origin discrimination to proceed past the motion-to-dismiss stage. The instructor, who is Muslim and of Pakistani descent, worked at Indian River State College from 2019 until his termination on March 1, 2024.

College officials cited a purported security alert linking him to an FDLE Homeland Security database for terrorist threats, though the instructor alleges no such database exists and the claim was false.

The college's chief of campus safety directed the instructor to a 2020 article that accused him of being an Islamist, racist, and socialist, and referenced Facebook posts he made as a minor. The instructor alleges the college relied on the article and anti-Muslim stereotypes in deciding to terminate him.

Internal emails obtained through a public-records request showed that by April 5, 2024, the campus safety office had cleared the instructor and concluded he posed no threat. College leadership drafted a reinstatement letter but never sent it.

The instructor alleges that the chancellor of the Florida College System personally directed officials not to reinstate him despite the clearance. He further alleges that a member of the Florida Board of Education brought the 2020 article to the chancellor's attention and encouraged action against him.

The instructor was reinstated on August 28, 2024, within an hour of the college receiving his public-records request seeking internal communications about his termination. He filed an EEOC charge on February 20, 2025.